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Mystical Experience Stories

Visit the pages below to read well-documented mystical experience cases from a range of individuals – people from a broad spectrum of backgrounds, times, and places.

We recommend that, as you read the mystical experience of each individual, you try to keep in mind that there is a distinction between a given mystical experience and the interpretation of that experience. In his book, The Teachings of the Mystics, W.T. Stace explained the matter of experience vs. interpretation through a metaphor:

“On a dark night out of doors, one may see something glimmering white. One person may think it a ghost. A second person may take it for a sheet hung out on a clothesline. A third person may suppose that it is a white-painted rock. Here we have a single experience with three different interpretations. The experience is genuine, but the interpretations may be either true or false. If we are to understand anything about mysticism, it is essential that we should make a similar distinction between a mystical experience and the interpretations which may be put upon it either by the mystics themselves or by nonmystics [emphasis ours]. For instance, the same mystical experience may be interpreted by a Christian in terms of Christian beliefs and by a Buddhist in terms of Buddhistic beliefs.”

While it is likely impossible to isolate “pure” experience (i.e., experience without any degree of interpretation), your remembering the experience/interpretation distinction as you read will help you to better understand the transcendental, unitive core of all mystical experience.